Multidisciplinary artist Taryn Simon is preparing "Father Country I Do Love You," her largest exhibition to date and the first monographic show by a photography-based artist in the Guggenheim's iconic spiral rotunda. Opening in three weeks, the exhibition represents a significant milestone for the 51-year-old New York-based artist, who has spent 25 years using image and text to examine systems of power, information and organisation.

Developed over 10 years, "Father Country" draws on Simon's correspondence with a retired federal agent, tracing witnesses to acts of espionage, conspiracy and violence. Simon's meticulous practice is defined by extraordinary dedication to research and detail—she has catalogued seized airport contraband over five days, imported 4,000 specimens to recreate treaty-signing floral arrangements, and gained access to typically unseen American sites from biothreat facilities to a braille Playboy edition. The exhibition features an elaborate recreation of the Bangkok living room of Jim Thompson, a silk businessman and suspected spy who disappeared in 1967, a mystery connected to her father's service in Thailand.